Every autumn, Ludwigsburg Castle in Germany transforms its grounds to host the world’s largest pumpkin exhibition. Its sculptures typically utilize over 450,000 pumpkins of 600 different varieties. Every year brings its own theme. For 2025, the focus was “Big Movies,” which invited creators to reimagine cinematic icons using gourds as their medium.
Among the many exhibits sprawled across the castle’s lawn, the USS Enterprise from the popular sci-fi series ‘Star Trek,’ was particularly eye-catching. Using smaller, light-colored pumpkins, the artist created the main body of the ship, complementing this base color with brown pumpkins for the rim of the ship’s saucer. Star Trek is hugely popular in Germany.
The U.S.S. Pumpkin
The annual pumpkin festival is held annually from late August to the end of October at the Residenzschloss Ludwigsburg (AKA Ludwigsburg Residential Palace), which is about 12km from Stuttgart. Its address is Schlossstrasse 30. Admission runs 13-16€, depending upon whether you order online or on-site and whether you’re coming on a weekday or weekend. The pumpkin exhibition runs from 9:00am to 6:00pm daily, although food stalls operate on slightly shorter hours (10:30am to 5:00pm). During the pumpkin festival, you can enjoy pumpkin-themed treats such as pumpkin soup, pumpkin waffles, and pumpkin ice cream. There is also a pumpkin regatta, carving stations, and a biggest pumpkin contest.
Your pumpkin festival tickets includes admission to the gardens. The castle itself has been described as “one of the largest baroque buildings preserved in the original in Europe”. can be toured from 10:00am to 5:00pm daily. A standard tour is 10€ with an economical family option of 25€.